The ruling Fatah faction is looking to current Cairo peace
talks to end the split among the Palestinians, a senior Fatah official said
Tuesday.
Nabil Shaath, heading the Fatah delegation to a meeting with
Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Soleiman, said he hoped the talks would
produce agreement on a viable government that eventually would lead to
presidential and legislative elections, dpa
reported.
"Now everybody is waiting for a government that will put an end to
the blockade of Gaza, open the borders and be accepted by everybody," said
Shaath.
Shaath told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the idea of deploying Arab forces
was not discussed during a meeting earlier Tuesday which was part of talks to
end the inter-Palestinian conflict.
"We discussed an Arab presence, but the shape of this presence will only
be specified after the reconciliation, which everybody seeks, takes
place," the senior Fatah official said.
Shaath said that Hamas' answers to the Egyptian proposals were positive, yet
unspecific.
"Hamas expressed their desire to unite all factions, but they did not say
how this will be realised," added Shaath, expressing his hope that the
Islamist movement's intentions "would be genuine".
Egypt's proposal aims at reuniting all Palestinian groups and ending the
rivalry between Fatah and Hamas which has been going on since the Islamist
movement took over the Gaza Strip in June 2007.
Senior Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmad, also in Cairo, told dpa that there had
been "far-reaching" talks between Soleiman and the Fatah delegation.
Soleiman has already had 11 meetings with a succession of Palestinian factions
throughout September. The last meeting with Hamas is scheduled to be held on
October 8, to be followed by an all- inclusive meeting expected at the
beginning of November in Cairo.
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